This weekend, after five consecutive years of holding its daytime conference events at the historic Lafayette Hotel in North Park, the San Diego Music Thing is moving less than a mile north to the Sheraton Mission Valley San Diego Hotel. But its marathon live music offerings Friday and Saturday night will remain rooted in North Park, where bands will perform at one outdoor and nine indoor venues. (The six other venues range from the Whistle Stop in South Park to the Casbah, overlooking Lindbergh Field.)

“We moved to the Sheraton just because I believe it was a better opportunity for us to grow the event,” said Kevin Hellman, the president of the San Diego Music Foundation, under whose auspices the two-day fete is held. “Panelists had mentioned in previous years that they’d prefer to stay at a larger hotel. And, quite frankly, as a nonprofit, we got a much better deal and more space from the Sheraton.”

Where: Evening concerts at nine venues in North Park and six in nearby San Diego neighborhoods; daytime panels, mentoring sessions and keynote talks will be held at the Sheraton Mission Valley San Diego Hotel, 1433 Camino del Rio South

Yet, while the San Diego Music Thing’s footprint is expanding — along with the number of both evening and daytime offerings — its indie-rock-centric focus remains largely the same.

The nightly concert lineup mixes some national acts (including Ra Ra Riot, Titus Andronicus and Sonic Youth veteran Kim Gordon’s new noise-rock duo, Body/Head) with a bevy of San Diego’s top punk, alternative, indie and roots-rock artists (including The Silent Comedy, Transfer, Unwritten Law and The Album Leaf). All told, slightly more than 150 bands will perform at 15 venues Friday and Saturday. To boost attendance, a variety of ticket options are being offered.

The daytime roster at the Sheraton includes two keynote addresses (Gordon on Friday and MXPX singer Mike Herrera on Saturday), three artist sessions (including one by Lol Tolhurst of The Cure), seven mentoring sessions and 12 panels on topics as varied as new music technology and health insurance options for musicians.

This weekend sees the addition of three venues — the Birch North Park Theatre (where Ra Ra Riot performs), the Irenic and an outdoor stage on Saturday that will be set up in front of Queen Bee’s on Ohio Street in North Park.

"I feel like I’ve been working on a giant moving jigsaw puzzle for the last five months,” said veteran San Diego concert promoter Tim Mays, who co-owns the Casbah and booked all of this year’s bands (with help from local music mainstay Mario Escovedo). "And it’s still changing, because — inevitably — at the last minute something happens. But I think we came up with a great, diverse lineup this year.

"Our hardest job now is educating the public as to how they can take advantage of seeing all the bands, whether it's by buying a wrist band, a super-pass or individual tickets. There are a lot of ways to participate and, sometimes, people get confused."

Doing San Diego Music Thing concerts at the Birch North Park Theatre had long been on the event's wish-list, Hellman noted, but was not feasible in previous years for logistical reasons.

"The Birch is the crown jewel in North Park and we wanted to do something in the theater for the last five years, but other events were booked," he said. "It was available this year and Ra Ra Riot's tour schedule worked out, so we're thrilled to incorporate the venue and bring in a bigger band. That's stunted our growth in previous year — we didn't have larger venues to bring in bigger bands."

While the panels, keynotes and one-on-one sessions at the Sheraton Mission Valley are still dwarfed in number by the evening concerts, there are more of them this weekend than in any previous edition of the San Diego Music Thing.

"It's similar to what we've done in the past, but we've tried to create more one-on-one sessions," Hellman said. "Our hope is that the mentoring sessions will let people get answers right at the start and not just ask question at the end of panel."

Gone this year are the shuttle buses that ran up and down University Avenue and beyond, although there will be shuttle service from the Sheraton to North Park and back.

"We found that 95 percent of the people were coming to the corner of 30th and University and that people going to, say, the Soda Bar were going there for the night. So it didn't make sense to be having shuttle buses if no one is gong to be using them," Hellman said.

Will the San Diego Music Thing return to the Sheraton in Mission Valley next year?

"It is too early to say," Hellman said. "If our experience is good, we'd love to. They've been very nice and this is a very nice, modern hotel."